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.B33 
1825 



copy 1 ADDRESS, b/^^ ^/y/t 




DELIVERED AT BATH, 



JULY 4, 1825, 



itnnftiersatfi 



DSCLARATIOir OF IXTDEPEIT DENCE. 



BY FRANCIS WINTER, Esq. 



BATH: 

PRISTTEB BT JOSEPH G. TOBRET, 

July, 1825. 



IB 3d 
IBZS' 



BATH, JULY 4, 1825. 
SIR — We have the honor to present you the thanks of the 
Citizens of Bath, for jour patriotic and excellent Address of 
this day, and to request a copy for the press. With the high- 
est respect we are dear Sir, your obedient servants, 
BENJAMIN AMES, ) 

BENJAMIN RANDALL, V Committet. 
ZINA HYDE, 3 

To Francis Winter, Esq. 

£jiTH, JULY 5, 1825. 
GENTLEMEN — In compliance with your request, so politely 
communicated, I herewith send to you the copy of the address 
delivered on the 4th inst. I remain, gentlemen, with senti- 
ments of the highest esteem, your obedient servant, 

FRANCIS WINTER. 
To Hon. Benjamin Ames, Benjamin Randall, 
and Zina Hyde, Esq'rs, Committee, 

It may be proper here to remark, that the Orator, now above 
Eighty years of age, had but two or three days notice to pre- 
pare the following Address. 



33) OS^ 









j ADDRESS. 

When I look around this house and consider the characters 
©f which this numerous and respectable assembly is composed ; 
when I see so many professional gentlemen, and others, who 
may be ranked among the literati of our country — men whose 
talents would enable them to address you with all the fire, en- 
ergy and force of diction of a Demosthenes, or the sweet flow- 
ing language of a Cicero ; and when at the same time I call to 
mind my own incompetence, my age and its concomitant infir- 
mities, I should not be surprised if an universal tremor perva- 
ded my whole system, and my mind be enveloped with too 
large a share of self diffidence. However, depending on your 
candor, on that candor which is the known characteristic of 
the ladies and gentlemen of Bath, I will without further apol- 
ogy, or exordium, essay, by divine permission, to discharge the 
honorable service assigned me. 

Ladies and Gentlemen — You will permit me, with heart 
felt satisfaction, to congratulate you on the return of this Anni- 
versary, on the arrival of this auspicious morn, in which it is 
our privilege as well as our duty to celebrate the Birth Day of 
our Nation. It was a vehement expostulation of one of the 
ancient prophets. Can a woman bring forth before she travel- 
leth, can a Nation be born a once ? Who has seen or heard of 
such a thing? To the latter part of this interrogation, the 
sons and daughters of Columbia may in a qualified sense an- 
swer in the affirmative, and say, yes, we have seen or we have 



heard of such an event, for the United States of America were 
born a Nation at once^ as on This Day. The return of this 
Anniversary naturally and powerfully attaches our recollec- 
tions to the scenes and occurrences of the revolutionary war, 
which secured and confirmed to us this mighty boon — OUR 
INDEPENDENCE. And when we take a retrospective view 
cf those scenes and occurrences, we find our souls overwhelm- 
ed with mingled sensations of joy and of grief ; of joy, 
that it pleased the Supreme Governor of the Universe, that 
great and glorious Being who holds all human destinies in his 
hands, to crown the efforts of our fathers and brethren with 
such great, such signal, I had almost said such miraculous suc- 
cess. That it pleased Him to compel the numerous, the well 
disciplined, the well appointed troops of Britain to how to the 
prowess of the American arms, and those of them M*ho sur- 
vived the sanguinary contest, to return with unparalled igno- 
miny and disgrace to the country from whence they came. — 
That it pleased Him who rules in the hearts of the children of 
men, and turns them as the rivers of water are turned, to con- 
vince the king and government of Britain, that it was impos- 
sible to subjugate and enslave a people determined to be Free ; 
that inclined their hearts to wish for peace ; and forced them 
in the face of all Europe, yea, before the whole universe, to 
acknowledge that the UNITED STATES are, and of right 
OUGHT TO BE, A FREE, SOVEREIGN, and INDEPEN- 
DENT NATION. 

What a basis was here laid for regret and humiliation to the 
inhabitants of Britain, those haughty islanders ? And what a 
foundation to Americans for joy, exultation, praise and grati- 
tude. Well may we adopt the language of holy writ, and 
say, "The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we 
are glad. Bless the Lord, our souls, and all that is within 
us, bless his holy name." Well may we rejoice in his provi- 
dential government of the world. The Lord reigns, let the 
people of America rejoice ! The Lord reigns, let the enemies 
of America tremble. Ilallalujah ! for the Lord God omnipo- 
tent reigneth. 



I observed that a retrospective view of the scenes and oc- 
currences of the War of the Revolution afforded matter of 
grief, as well as of joy ; of grief that so many of our worthies 
fell in the arduous and dubious contest by the bloody hands of 
the British soldiers, their German mercenaries, and their In- 
dian allies ! Here we may pause and drop a tear over the^ash- 
es of a Montgomery, a Mercer, a Laurens, an Alden, and 
an amiable Warren ! This last may with propriety be call- 
ed the proto-martyr for the liberties of his country. He had 
a liberal, a polished education, was an early, zealous, intelli- 
gent Son of Liberty ; a member of the Massachusetts Con- 
vention, held near Cambridge, at the commencement of the 
war, and by them appointed a Major-General in the army then 
raising. When it was planned to attempt to fortify (he 
heights of Charlestown, Warren, with a smiling countenance 
and composed mind, left his colleagues reciting that patriotic 
verse of the latin poet, Diilce et decorum est pro Patria 
mori. He hurried away to Bunker Hill. There his ears 
were soon assailed by the noise of the warrior, and his eyes 
the sight of garments rolled in blood! He and his brave Mi- 
litia gallantly defended their suddenly raised and weak ramp- 
art, twice repulsed the assaulting foe. A leaden messenger of 
destruction then pierced Warren's fair fabric, and he fell to 
the ground, lifeless and inanimate ! amiable Warren ! I knew 
thee well. In life thou wast lovely and beloved, and thy 
death waa deeply lamented by thy country ! Yea, it was said 
that the big tear was seen coursing its way down the manly 
cheeks of the more generous officers of the hostile band : they 
too deplored thy premature exit. 

If we needed matter to augment our grief, we might readily 
find it in the recollection of the hundreds and tens of hundreds 
of our countrymen, who after being made prisoners of war, per- 
ished, miserably perished, for want of medical aid, suitable 
care, and wholesome diet, in lonely dungeons and pestilential 
prison ships, those Pandemomiums of Britain. — WE RE- 
MEMBER ! But WE Forgive. 

Of those of us who lived in those times which are said em- 
phatically to have tried men's souls ; of us who then took an 



active part in the cause of our countr)-, and by our voices, by 
our pens, or by our swords, aided in her emancipation from the 
tyranny of Britain, how few survive to celebrate this glorious 
event. Some do survive : That profound statesman, the ven- 
erable John Adams, the second President of the United States 
under our e^isUng constitution, and the father of our present 
excellent President, is yet numbered among the living; but he 
has but a short, a slender hold on life being now almost four 
score and ten years of age, and according to the course of na- 
ture must soon die. But (0 fortunate senex) his name, his 
fame, the memory of him shall ntver die. His long life has 
been devoted to the cause of his country. Before the Revo- 
lution, in the time of it, and in times subsequent, he has rend- 
ered essential services to his country, and for those services 
his country owes him a debt of boundless gratitude. We may 
next mention the illustrious, the philosophic Jefferson, the 
pride of Virginia, the boast of the Union. To these may be 
added the accurate and discriminating Madison ; — the virtu- 
ous and patriotic Monroe ; — the brave and alert Dearborn. 
I should commit an unpardonable fault, and indeed my own 
conscience would chastise me most severely, should I forbear 
to mention that gallant Frenchman, our Nation's Guest, the 
General De Lafayette. This illustrious personage, posses- 
sing a large stock of philanthropy, and an earnest desire that 
our exertions for independence might meet with success, left 
his native country, the fair realm of France — left his young 
and amiable wife, to whom he had been recently married — 
left his rich and noble connexions, and a large fortune amply 
sufficient to furnish him with all the comforts, yea, with all 
the delicacies and luxuries of life ; traversed the vast Atlantic, 
hastened away to Congress and to Washington, and with no- 
ble generosity, offered his purse and personal services to aid 
us in our holy struggle. He was soon appointed a Major- 
General in the American Army ; and at the head of our Bat- 
talions risked his valuable and eventful life, gallantly combat- 
ing our invading foe. Such was his influence with his King, 
and the French Cnbinet, that he procured from them not only 
pecuniary aid, but a large naval and land force, which greatly 



contributed to our success in the capture oi Cornwallis and his 
veteran army. When peace was fully restored, he meditated 
a return to his native country. At this period, Ihe person 
who now addresses you, had the high honor and superi.itive 
pleasure of paying his respects to Gen. Lafayette. Now, 
after a lapse of forty years, this Hero of both hemispheres has 
returned to this his adopted and beloved country, and has met 
with a marked welcome and cordial reception from all orders 
and descriptions of men among us. It is the ardent wish, the 
devout prayer, of the good people of these United States, that 
the sauie beneficent Being, who at first infused into the soul of 
Lafayette his philanthropy and his other virtues ; who taught 
his hand to war, and his fingers to fight ; who covered his 
head in the days of our battles; who, after his return to his 
native land, screened him from the fierj? zeal and mad rage of 
an infuriated populace ; who baflfled the plans and frustrat- 
ed the designs of Kings and Emperors to take his life ; who 
supported him in the dungeons of Prussia, preserved him in the 
Bastiles of Austria; who has granted him life, health, strength, 
inclination and opportunity again to visit us. I say it is the 
devout prayer of the good people of this Republic, that this 
same beneficent Being would still have Lafayette in his holy 
keeping; that now, when he is marching the down-hill road 
of life ; that now, virhen grey hairs are here and there upon 
him, and his head begins to be silvered over with the wlnte 
blossoms of the grave, that to his own pleasing recollections 
He would add his divine consolations which are neither few or 
small. 

Thus, Ladies and Gentlemen, we have the happiness to say 
that some of our Revolutionary Heroes, Patriots, and friends 
still breathe the vital air. But alas, how few, compared with 
those who are gone to the unknown, the eternal world ! Our 
Fathers where are they ? Our Heroes, Patriots, Sages, do they 
live forever? Ah no ! Death, the grim Monarch of the shades, 
has thickly erected his trophies over them, and has awfully 
thinned their ranks. 

Washington, the great and the good — ^Washington, the 
hrave yet cool and prudent Chieftain — Washington, the first 



in war, the first in peace, and the first in the hearts of his 
countrymen, is no more ! Green, the intreped Green, who 
played with death an hundred times in the field of battle, and 
whose majestic form the leaden messengers of Destruction 
could never touch, has fallen by a fatal stroke from yonder 
grand Luminary ! Wayne, the gallant Wayne, who so heroi- 
cally assaulted, and so triumphantly carried the British ram- 
part at Stoney-Point — Wayne, whose brave soul the war- 
hoops and yellipgs of the Savages of the wilderness could 
never appal, has fallen by fatal disease ! Hancock, the mild, 
polished, the generous, the patriotic Hancock, whose coffers 
v/ere always open to the calls of his country, and who spent a 
princelv fortune in her behalf has gone down to the gloomy 
mansions of the dead ! Adams, the stern, the unbending, the 
unyielding Samuel Adams, that master-spirit among our first 
Patriots, the productions of whose pen, in the years 71, 2, 3, 
made George the 3d tremble on his throne, is now no more! 
the fire which once flashed in his eyes is quenched in death ; 
the tongue en whose eloquence a grateful Metropolis, and an 
august Senate, so often listened with rapture, is now silent in 
the grave ! To each of these worthies whom I have mentioned 
may be applied that encomiastic verse of the Latin Poet — 

Semper honos, nomenque tuum, laudesque manebunt. 
Time v-nuM fail me, should I mention and verv briefly eulo- 
gize a Starks, a Knox, and others who in those times deserved 
well of their country. Let those I have mentioned suffice. — 
But what, did I say —that these Patriots and Heroes are now no 
riiore ? I did say so ! but I recall the expression. They live, 
they still live, in yonder realms of light and bliss. Methinks 
that with my mental eye, I now see them, holding happy con- 
verse with the Patriots and Heroes who departed before them. 
They live in the hearts of their countrymen, in whose hearts 
are and will be erected for them, Monuments, more honorable, 
more lasting, than those of polished brass, or of sculptured 
marble. They live in the annals of the Nation ; the historic 
page shall do justice to their virtues, and shall transmit their 
names down, with merited eulogiums, to the latest posterity: 
While the names of their enemies, who were also enemies to 



their country, shall sink down into eternal oblivion; orifthey 
are ever remembered, it will only be to meet the fate of an 
Hutchinson, a Church, a Benedict Jirnold, a Judas hear- 
tot — the contempt, the scorn, the indignation, of the wise and 
the good. 

The fame, the praise, of our Patriots and Heroes of the 
Revolution, cannot be circumscribed within the limits of the 
United States. No. The spirit of Otis, of Quincy, of the Ad- 
amses and others, which, just before the war, was so gloriously 
displayed in Faneuil Hall, that cradle of our Independence, 
carefully rocked by the patriotic Bostonians, has visited other 
climes, and shed its influences on other Nations. Illumined, 
cheered, animated by the effulgence of its rays, the Spanish 
Colonists in South America, have arisen in their might, have 
thrown off the galling yoke under which they long labored, 
have renounced their allegiance to a foreign despot, have gal- 
lantly fought for and obtained their rights and privileges, and 
are now in the enjoyment of Independence, with its attendant 
blessings. They have formed Constitutions, they have erect- 
ed elective representative governments similar to our own. — 
They gratefully acknowledge that it was by the influence of 
this spirit, by following our example, that they have obtained 
these blessings. Yes ; they with gratitude own that our Pat- 
riots pointed out to them the right road, smoothed and paved 
the way to their Independence. When they would extol their 
own Patriots and Heroes, when they would declare their sense 
of their martial deeds and meritorious services, and express 
their gratitude for them, they think they have used the lofti- 
est strains of panegyric, that they have gone to their 7ieplus 
ultra in the way of encomium, when they have styled them 
the Washingtons, the Hancocks, the Adamses of Spanish 
America. 

This spirit has passed over the briny waves which separate 
us from Europe ; has visited the people of England and Ire- 
land, has animated them to seek a reform in their Parliaments, 
to shorten the duration of them, and to obtain a free and equal 
representation in their House of Commons. 

9 



I ■ 



iO 

Th'is spirit has visited the classical ground of Greece — the 
Greeks who for centuries have been writhing under the iron 
hand of Turkish despotism, have been animated to endeavor 
to extricate themselves from their horrid bondage. For this 
they have struggled with partial success ; and for this they are 
now struggling. God grant that the good work begun in them 
may go on, and be perfected to its end, and that the time may 
soon arrive when these Greeks shall reassume their rank and 
station among the nations of the earth. Heaven grant that the 
time may soon come when the Banner of the Cross shall be 
seen in the city of Constantinople, waving over the Crescent 
of that grand imposter, Mahomet, on the stately and magnifi- 
cent walls of the once celebrated Church of St. Sophia, 

Ladies and Gentlemen — Our Revolutionary Heroes being 
dead, yet speak to us from their sepulchres, or rather from the 
happy stations to which they are exalted. Their first voice to 
us is, Stand by your Country ! Their second voice is, Stand 
BY YOUR Country ! ! Their third voice is, at every risk, at 
every hazard, STAND BY YOUR COUNTRY ! ! ! Hark ! 
what voice is that which I hear, or seem to hear? 0, 'tis the 
voice of Washington, the sainted, the immortal Washington ! 
I recognize the well known mellifluent sound ! My sons,says 
he, scorn to be slaves ; scorn the hewers of wood or drawers 
of water, to any people or nation under heaven. My sons, 
support your Independence against the assaults of foreign foes, 
and the wicked machinations of intestine conspirators. Culti- 
vate Union among yourselves. Remember that it is as true 
now as it was when I was at the head of your armies, that by 
uniting you stand, by dividing you fall. Remember that the 
possession of Union is the possession of Liberty, and that the 
Joss of union is the loss of your independence. Frown there- 
fore, frown indignantly on the man who shall dare to lisp a 
syllable in favor of a separation of the States. 

vShall we not hearken to the voice of Washingtpn, that fath- 
er of his country, that benefactor of mankind, that ornament of 
the human family. Yes, WE WILL. From this time we 
will exile from our breasts all party animosities and prejudices ; 
we will erase, we will expunge from our Nomen Clature the 



11 

party names by which we have been distinguished, and will 
substitute the more honorable, the more appropriate appellation 
of true friends to our Government and Constitution. 

Fellow Citizens — It is of high importance to cultivate this 
unanimity, these good feelings. We have enemies within, we 
have enemies without ! We have not only to watch over as- 
piring demagogues among ourselves, who, under the cloak of 
patriotism, are seeking to aggrandise themselves and their con- 
nexions ; but we have to contend with Principalities, and 
Powers, and Dominions. Many of the Monarchs of Europe 
have entered into a league which they audaciously term a 
holy alliance. This by the way is a flagrant and impious 
misnomer. These allied monarchs have already proclaimed 
hostility against republican principles, against republican insti- 
tutions; and it is without doubt the ardent wish of their souls 
that every Republican Government on the face of the earth 
should be eradicated; and that no government should be in 
existence except such as are as despotic as their own. Be- 
sides, we have reason to fear, that there are some who envy 
our growth, who repine at our prosperity; who look upon us 
as ihe.\v rivals in commerce, in manufactures, in nautical skill, 
and naval tactics and bravery. These will use every exertion 
within the compass of their power, they will leave no stone 
unturned to bring about a dissolution of the National com- 
pact — to effect a severance of the States. Their maxim is, 
Divide et impera. But fellow citizens, let our maxim be, 
Quos Deits conjunxit Nemo seperate. Those whom God 
hath joined together, neither men nor Devils shall ever put 
asunder. 



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